Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 689 The Prince's Palace Has No Surplus Grain

In the Wei Kingdom, in a certain earthen city in the northern Sili Province, the entire city was covered in snow, and the cold wind was biting.

Liu Hu's family huddled together on the tatami mat, covered by thin blankets, trying to keep warm.

It got really cold right at the beginning of winter this year, and to save on food and firewood, the family hasn't gone out much lately.

Listening to the howling wind and snow outside, Liu Hu, his eyes still sleepy, murmured, "This damn weather is so cold, I wonder how many people are going to freeze to death! Luckily, we still have a place to stay..."

"Please, God, let the weather clear up. If this keeps up, we won't have enough firewood at home..."

As the saying goes, firewood, rice, oil, and salt are essential daily necessities for people, and firewood is of high value.

In such harsh winters, many people don't even die of starvation or disease, but rather from freezing to death.

Liu Hu considered the money and valuables at home, wondering if he should go and buy some more firewood.

Otherwise, when the deep winter gets even colder, even if you and your family are huddled together in bed, you'll have to light a fire to keep warm.

And at that time of year, the price of firewood will likely be even higher.

It's not like we'll run out of firewood and have to tear the house down...

"Dong dong dong..."

A heavy knocking sound, mixed with the sound of wind and snow, entered the room.

Liu Hu vaguely heard the voice and shouted weakly, "Who is it!"

"Tiger Brother! It's me! Come out quickly, there's great news!"

A familiar voice came from outside.

Liu Hu recognized the voice as Erniu's from next door and replied, "What's up?"

Erniu's voice was carried away by the wind and snow, "Come out first, or you won't believe me even if I tell you!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Hu cursed and wrapped himself in his tattered cotton-padded coat, shivering as he got out of bed, put on his patched cloth shoes, and hunched over as he left the room.

"What kind of happy event could there be on such a cold day? Is someone holding a funeral feast?"

Liu Hu muttered to himself as he quickly went to open the courtyard gate.

But there stood a sturdy Erniu outside the door, dragging a plank beside him with several bags of things and some firewood on it.

Liu Hu, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, craned his neck to look, and grinned, "What, you went to buy rice and flour to give some to your brothers?"

Erniu chuckled and said, "I didn't buy it, I got it from the temple!"

Liu Hu was taken aback, thinking he had misheard, and pricked up his ears, asking, "What did you say?"

Erniu said excitedly, "A new Buddhist temple opened in town, and they're giving out things there! You can bring your ID and household registration to collect rice and flour for your family members. The more family members you have, the more you get... Even homeless people and beggars can get some, and there's porridge too. Brother Hu, hurry up and take your family's household registration over there, there's a really long queue now..."

Liu Hu stared wide-eyed and said, "Oh my, has Buddha or Bodhisattva taken pity on us? Which temple is it?"

After the autumn harvest this year, the monks in the city temples said that the Buddhist community was going to hold some kind of event, asking the people to donate more incense so that they could receive the blessings of Buddha and Bodhisattva.

In order to ensure peace and safety, Liu Hu happily donated more grain than in previous years.

Now that winter is here and it's getting cold, he regrets donating all that food. He should have just converted it into cash and used it to buy some winter supplies for his family.

Erniu asked, "Over on North Street, what's that called Mahayana Buddhist Temple?"

Liu Hu clicked his tongue and said, "What Buddha? Mahayana Buddha? Never heard of it!"

Erniu scratched his head. "I don't know what kind of Buddha it is. I heard it's someone sent down to earth by the Buddha to save people from suffering. The people there said that they won't charge money for incense if you go there to worship, and you can go there if you really have no food..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Hu clicked his tongue in amazement. Why had he never seen the temples in the city be so kind before? Could it be that the real Buddha had descended to the mortal world?

As ordinary people at the bottom of society, they have little understanding of the existence of saints, Buddhas, immortals and gods.

Often, it's all hearsay; whatever someone tells you, you believe it.

And because of this, there are always people who use the guise of saints and immortals to swindle and deceive, and they can fool many people, not just ordinary people.

In the minds of ordinary people like Liu Hu, it was only natural for them to worship those gods and bodhisattvas and donate incense money to the monks in temples to ensure peace and prosperity, just like paying taxes to the government.

The arrival of this Mahayana Buddha was quite unexpected for them.

Erniu shrank his neck and said, "It's too cold outside, I'm going back first, Tiger, you go ahead..."

After saying that, Erniu dragged a plank of supplies to a nearby earthen courtyard.

Liu Hu's eyes lit up, and he immediately perked up.

He rushed back to the house, rummaged through drawers and cabinets to find the family's household registration records, stuffed them into his pocket, and ran out the door as fast as he could.

Braving the biting cold wind, Liu Hu arrived at North Street and soon saw a crowd of people.

Some people were queuing up, drinking porridge in their hands.

After making some inquiries, Liu Hu learned that supplies were indeed being distributed here. Although each household didn't receive much, these free supplies meant that they could eat a few more bites of food every day during the winter.

For some, this is life-saving food.

Liu Hu got a bowl of hot porridge and obediently waited in line.

It's just that the weather is too cold, otherwise he would have thought of inviting his wife and kids over to share a bowl of porridge.

But thinking about this awful weather, if someone gets sick from the cold after going back and forth, that would be a real shame.

Liu Hu sipped his porridge and listened to the others' discussion, eventually understanding what was going on.

It was some kind of Mahayana Buddhist temple built by a prince or other important figure to help the common people...

For Liu Hu, those important figures were too distant, giving him a very unreal feeling.

Normally in the city, even the county magistrate is not someone a nobody like them can easily meet.

Liu Hu slurped up a mouthful of porridge and said to the person speaking beside him, "Your Highness, isn't that the future emperor of our Great Wei?"

Someone said, "That's for sure! His Highness the Crown Prince, and the Prince of Huaiyang from Sizhou... they're both good people! I heard they're like bodhisattvas descended to earth to help us common folk..."

Wow, that's amazing!

"That won't do. Are the Crown Prince and the Prince ordinary people? From now on, come here to worship Buddha. It's sure to be effective! And you don't even need to pay for incense..."

For ordinary people with limited resources, the most important thing is to avoid spending money on incense offerings.

As for whether it's effective or not, this Mahayana temple was built by such a great figure, so it must be more efficacious than other temples in the city.

A group of ordinary people chatted happily and lively in the freezing cold.

Some people in the city, however, were not so happy, especially the local monks in the temples.

Initially, when Mahayana Buddhists came here to build temples, the city's officials and monks paid great attention to it.

After all, the arrival of this unknown sect was tantamount to competing with them for incense offerings and tributes. As a result, some people came to investigate and find out who or what kind of person or demon was causing trouble, daring to build a temple in the area without saying a word.

Moreover, before the temple was even built and the Buddha statues were even erected, they began distributing supplies and aggressively trying to win people's hearts.

They completely disregarded the local government and monks.

Foreign gangs don't understand the rules, so it's necessary to crack down on them.

However, when someone made contact, they discovered that these people in Mahayana Buddhism had impressive backgrounds.

The temple was built on Prince Huaiyang's property, and among those people were Prince Huaiyang's servants...

They came here to build a temple, still claiming to be the legitimate successor of Buddha and to be the Crown Prince.

This completely stunned all the local factions.

Regardless of whether it is truly the orthodox lineage of Buddha, Mahayana Buddhism has the backing of the prince and Prince Huaiyang. Who would dare to cause trouble? They'd be asking for trouble.

As a result, some people turned a blind eye, thinking that since the crown prince had just been established, this was a way to win over the people, and the uproar would pass after a while.

They really didn't believe that any temple could give away money every day without accepting donations.

Even in a small town like theirs, the amount of money spent is not a small sum.

And in other places, there are obviously other temples like this.

If things continue like this, even the crown prince and princes probably won't have enough wealth to squander.

While certain figures in the city lay in their warm rooms, making casual speculations.

Outside the city, a caravan laden with supplies slowly approached.

The Taiping Caravan was a caravan proposed by Lu Zheng and formed by selecting personnel from various regions.

Unlike large merchant guilds that traveled around for profit, caravans were groups that traveled to various places for the purpose of providing relief.

Because the nature of the team differs from other chambers of commerce, it does not have much overlap in interests with those chambers of commerce, which also avoids conflict and competition to a certain extent.

Moreover, there was more than one such caravan. Those that were able to enter the Wei Kingdom carried Yuan Tao's seal and were not afraid of being questioned by local officials.

Inside the city, the people who were still queuing to receive supplies suddenly noticed that the snow on the ground was melting quite quickly and the weather seemed to have warmed up a lot.

Unbeknownst to everyone, a small figure flew out from underground and instantly soared above the snow clouds.

High in the sky, invisible to the naked eye, Lu Zheng and his companions traveled in a spirit boat.

Upon seeing Qingyi return, Qingwan walked over, pinched her cheek, and said with a grin, "You've worked hard!"

This winter is colder than usual, and this is not an anomaly in one region, but rather a result of the changing seasons as a whole.

The area involved is so vast that it's impossible to solve the weather anomaly problem simply by invoking deities as before.

However, everyone is still trying to do as much as possible to ensure that more people can be saved.

Gongyang Ming looked into the distance and sighed, "The further south you go, the better the weather gets, but unfortunately, the local disaster relief efforts in Wei are not very proactive."

Qingwan pouted, "It's freezing cold, those people cherish themselves, how could they bear to go and help with disaster relief..."

"I heard that Buddhist sects from all over Wei have sent representatives to participate in the Unobstructed Assembly, braving wind and snow. They're quite enthusiastic about this kind of thing..."

"These people are utterly unworthy of calling themselves Buddhist disciples. Holding a Buddhist gathering? We should just go and tear the place down and never hold it again!"

Qingwan stood with her hands on her hips, looking quite angry.

Gongyang Ming smiled and said, "With just a few of us, I'm afraid it won't work. Miss Qingwan, you should calm down."

During their time together in the Northern Region, Gongyang Ming discovered that this little demon who could cultivate righteous energy was also very genuine; if she dared to say such things, then she truly had such thoughts.

However, with just a few people, it's unlikely they could manage to overturn such a large undertaking as Buddhism.

Qingwan snorted, "So many Buddhist sects gathered together for a conference, and even Buddha didn't show any divine intervention. Heh, what's the point of holding it? It's just embarrassing!"

Qingwan tilted her head and looked at Lu Zheng, urging, "If you ask me, we should hold a new Uncensored Gathering!"

“Yuan Tao has been made crown prince, and he has begun to gradually establish Mahayana Buddhism. Perfect! Let’s bring in all the new things and properly organize Buddhism.”

They received news of the important events that had recently occurred in the Wei Kingdom while they were still in the Northern Regions, almost through the fastest information channels.

Even in many parts of Wei, where people were unaware that Yuan Tao had become the crown prince, they had some understanding of the situation.

Gongyang Ming stroked his beard and said, "Although Yuan Tao has been made crown prince, he is still somewhat weak in the face of the entire Buddhist sect..."

They have analyzed the situation over the past few days. Emperor Wei has not clearly stated his position, but instead has recommended Yuan Tao.

It is evident that Emperor Wei and the court had some support, but not much, and they did not have much confidence in the matter of suppressing Buddhism.

Qingwan shook her head and said, "Sigh, the Emperor of Wei really has no guts. Even Emperor An dared to behead people in the court."

……

"It's over, there's no food left in my manor. I never imagined this winter would be so unlucky, there really is heavy snow..."

Yuan Zhong looked through the Wangfu's account books and immediately frowned.

To help Yuan Tao build momentum and promote Mahayana Buddhism, he contributed money, food, and effort.

There's been no movement in Luoyang yet, and his granaries are almost empty.

He wanted to mobilize the powerful families in Pingcheng to help with disaster relief, but they had all donated some money before, and now they were making excuses and waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

The thought of those people's faces made Yuan Zhong furious. With food and supplies in dire need everywhere, was he supposed to buy them from those big spenders at exorbitant prices? What difference was there between that and slapping himself in the face?

Yuan Zhong squeezed the Buddhist prayer beads until they creaked, and said angrily, "They're all worms!"

Yuan Zhong took a deep breath and hurriedly ran to find Hu Qing.

"Master, has His Highness made any preparations? The granaries of my palace are empty, and it is truly difficult to sustain the needs of various regions..."

Hu Qing said calmly, "Doesn't Your Highness also have a treasure vault?"

Yuan Zhong's lips twitched slightly, and he said softly, "These days, grain is expensive everywhere, it's not that I'm stingy..."

"Alas, if one can become an Arhat or a Bodhisattva, it is no problem to give away all one's wealth."

Yuan Zhong thought to himself that he had lost so much money and gained nothing, so he couldn't really let him give away all his savings, could he?

Hu Qing said calmly, "How will Your Highness know it can't be done if you don't try?"

Yuan Zhong looked a little uneasy. He was a Buddhist and not so easily fooled; he knew his own limitations.

If you could truly achieve enlightenment by spending money, why would he have spent so much over the years and still only have this much cultivation left?

Hu Qing noticed Yuan Zhong's expression and couldn't help but shake her head inwardly. This Prince Huaiyang, who was used to a life of privilege and nobility, was ultimately just like other ordinary people and found it difficult to truly let go of some things.

Just then, a servant from the manor rushed over to report.

"Your Highness, four guests have arrived outside. They say they've come from the Northern Region..." (End of Chapter)